Smartlook
Business Internet

Is Recording Visitor Sessions Worthy For Website Development?

Every business wants to their visitor the best experience and for this everyday something new is being introduced. When the business knows about the experience of their users with their website they can make it better, but the question is how that is possible? With the help of tools for visitor recording and session replay! Now what are they?

Record the journey

Visitor recording and session replay tools let the website owners to record, save and then replay the interaction of their visitors with the website. They get a clear idea about how are they interacting online and what features are liked most and which needs improvements. There is some controversy over the use of these tools as they interfere with the privacy of the users but those who have used them found them useful. They are able to provide the UX team and digital marketing teams with deep insights about the user experience and expectation about the website.

How do they work?

There are many visual recording and session replay tools available like Hotjar, the most popular one, then Mouseflow, Smartlook, Lucky Orange and many more. As the visitors clicks the websites, scrolls there and navigate it these tools records every movement. Then the users analyze these recordings to find out the weak spots. The result is that the website can be improved over those weak points that are not preferred by the users.

It tells the developers about those back links that are broken. They can know that which sections are mostly used and which are left untouched. It tells the users about the visitor behavior that helps them to take the right decision.

The pros and cons of visitor recording and replay tools

Although there is some question regarding the session recording tools still it is found that companies are using them to improve the performance of their website. It must be that the pros are able to outweigh the cons.

Pros:
• Live online visitor interaction can be seen directly.
• Looks everything for individual visitor sessions and not as a whole.
• Tries to discover where the visitors are getting stuck. Is there any particular funnel or they are just dropping off.
• It helps in finding the bugs and enhances the overall user experience.
• The whole onboarding process can be better understood. The developers can know where the users are failing in onboarding.
• Helps in testing and enhancing any new feature of page.

Any disadvantages? Yes, of course

Cons:
• When the visitor actions are recorded there is no direct explanation from them. The business interprets the action on its own. Sometimes it may not be correct.
• When the individual visitor sessions are numerous it may become difficult to analyze.
• It takes time to watch every recording. Moreover it may not worthy watching all the recordings as all of them may not provide necessary insights.
• There is already risk of interfering privacy of an individual that is not liked by many.
It’s true that sometimes it may not be worthy every time but still recording website users provide insight that is very valuable.

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